Sunday, December 03, 2006

Fall Salads: The Autumn Harvest on Display

As part of a meal I cooked for my mother, who's visiting from New York, I put together this sald. I based it around some ingredients I had on hand - roasted butternut squash, a ripe pomegranate, and Marcona almonds-- the sweet, heart-shaped Spanish variety of almond that is fried lightly in olive oil and sea salt. I bought the almonds at Piedmont Grocery, but discovered today that you can find them in tins at a very reasonable price at Costco. This salad was a side dish for grilled chicken breasts but cended up as the star of the meal, with the meat nothing but a footnote. Since it was a meat-based meal, for reasons of kashrut I didn't add goat cheese - But if you're not kosher, or are not eating it with meat, I think goat cheese (soft or feta, crumbled) would be a perfect touch. This was one of my favorite salads, with perfectly complementary textures and flavors along with vivid fall colors.

5 comments:

Man that looks beautiful. I wish I loved eating it as much as I love looking at it. I think all it would really take it practice...reconditioning my taste buds to be happy when REAL FOOD enters the mouth...ah well.